The Blog

Discover Malaysia
…Online Malaysian Community

I am always fascinated by online communities from places around the world: South America, Turkey, Scandinavian Countries, the Arab World, the Far East, Africa, Australia/New Zealand and, my latest find, Malaysia. I am fascinated by the different cultures, their customs, the way they talk, their common likes and dislikes, their pre-occupations, and their language.

I speak Malaysian. At least I used to. I haven’t really spoken in fluent Malaysian in almost 11 years! But I should not forget it since I grew up with it and learned it throughout high school. But in North America you hardly ever need to speak Malaysian and so I’m not fluent in it any more…I used to be somewhat fluent in Arabic as well (but not quite as good as Malaysian) and I forgot that as well But we’re fixing that with the Arabic class inshaAllah!

I have opened an account with this Malaysian Community site: its like a BBS or a discussion board and it offers an online diary…so I posted my first entry in Malaysian! It felt so weird to write in Malaysian after sooooooooooo long! I think if I give surf this online community site every week, I can be fluent in Malaysian again (remember I grew up with it). I will try to visit the Malaysian site once a week to read and write and practice Malaysian!

Long Friday
Right before a Long Weekend

What a long day it was today. Unbelievable. Work was hectic as hell. Feel like I need a vacation already. Its good to know that this is a three day weekend due to Labor Day. Yippie! Had to deliver a khutba today at the masjid…that went well, alhamdulillah. Announced to everyone in the masjid that the Arabic class was set to start on Sunday, September 8th, inshaAllah. That’ll be so much fun, inshaAllah. Sadia and I are very excited because we’ve wanted to study Arabic and now we’re getting an opportunity. The teacher is really nice, mashaAllah!

in an earlier post [monday, July 22] i roughly paraphrased a quote that i thought was from Ghazzali, but actually it was by Rumi..and i found the actual quote in the book ‘the essential Rumi’ ! [i'll post it on 'the Rumi Page' as well!]:

“WEAN YOURSELF”

Little by little, wean yourself.
This is the gist of what i have to say.

From an embryo, whose nourishment comes in the blood,
move to an infant drinking milk,
to a child on solid food,
to a searcher after wisdom,
to a hunter of more invisible game.

Think how it is to have a conversation with an embryo.
You might say, ‘The world outside is vast and intricate.
There are wheat fields and mountain passes,
and orchards in bloom.

At night there are millions of galaxies, and in sunlight
the beauty of friends dancing at a wedding.’

You ask the embryo why he or she stays cooped up
in the dark with eyes closed.
Listen to the answer.

There is no ‘other world’.
I only know what i’ve experienced.
You must be hallucinating.“

Blogging is not just for women
Any Urdu Blogs out there…?

I haven’t come across but a few handful of blogs owned by guys. Is it not a guy thing to write online journals? There are however a few very good blogs by guys (check my bloglinker list for a few of them). I think its sort of like writing a diary. And since far more girls keeping diaries than guys ever will, the same holds true for blogs. I enjoy writing and blogging is an easy way to keep the writing thing alive…I’ve tried keeping a diary, but it wasn’t for me.

If blogs by guys are rare, blogs in Urdu are even more rare: I haven’t even found one yet. That’s why I am pretty sure that there is a good chance that my Urdu Blog is the first of its kind on the Internet. For those of you who can read Urdu, take a look at my latest Urdu post entitled “Chai ki Adat” or the Tea Drinking Habit. I feel that I am getting better at writing Urdu with every post. I even made a few improvements today over the Urdu software that I’m working on. Once I am done with it, I think we may start seeing some Urdu Blogs, which would be really nice indeed!

Life is like that, you know!
To blog or not to blog?

Don’t you feel that life is too fast to blog about sometimes?! I can’t fathom the concept of not having anything worth talking about on any given day. A daily To Do list should be sufficient, if you’re having trouble coming up with stuff to blog about! I love to blog because it makes me pay attention to life more: simple things or everyday events that I used to not remember before (even though I may have enjoyed a moment or laughed at a situation) I see slightly differently now. I even tend to write some things down if I think its definitely worth remembering ’cause I can now record them on my blog and share them with everyone online. I think blogging is a great exercise: it builds the ability to write, fosters creativity, builds a sense of community, provides interactivity and voice and it makes life more memorable. For instance, today I wrote down on a piece of paper that I was going to write about recycling (my wife likes to recycle stuff because she is so green). I also wrote that I wanted to blog about our experience at the pre-natal class and the breathing exercises the nurse was teaching tonight. It may not be a spectacular event but its our life and I want to be able to record moments from it as I see fit. Our kids may one day enjoy it, who knows (if they’re like I am, kinda geekish and kinda not!).

Let’s see if you think this is funny: The nurse at the pre-natal class was teaching about the breathing exercises that are good for dealing with labor pains and she said that its good to hold your breath for a count of 8. I told my wife I was going to say, a count of 6 if you stutter. She thought that that wasn’t funny. What do you think?